Spelling Test

I had to go in for an MRI on Tuesday. Checking things out in the lower back arena. Lots of pain, range of motion pretty stinky. I mean, I’ve had pain in my back since my early twenties but this kind of pain and the decrease of functionality is an issue. Another issue. So, my new back doc is on the case. We are on top of this. Go Team!

As I was saying/typing, I went in for an MRI. My new back doc ordered this to get the down and dirty before we can go any further and set up a solid plan for treatment. Or even know if there is one. As usual there is the familiar paperwork and questions. When I get back to the room where the magic will happen the MRI guy gets down to specifics which is his job and I appreciate when people do their job well: do I have any metal in my body, have I had cancer and do I have a pacemaker. I tell him plainly I have the staples left behind after surgery from having my uterus removed for cervical cancer. He pauses and looks me straight in the face and says “Huh, if you think that’s bad you should see people with ovarian cancer, now that’s really bad.”

You know when dogs hear a noise and they turn their head and stare, trying to figure out what the hell they just heard? I did that. To this guy. This dude. That just now said those words point blank into my face. I stood there, squinting my eyes and said “UNLESS it’s happening to YOU.” Then I waited. He looked up from what he was writing and actually looked at me. He sank back into his shoes. He shrunk about an inch as he exhaled. He blinked a couple of times then answered me with “Yeah, you’re right. Unless it’s happening to you.”

We then talk about why my doc sent me in the first place. He couldn’t spell Ehlers-Danlos so I spelled it for him. This isn’t a surprise or new, but by now I could tell he was feeling quite foolish. I let him. For the rest of the visit he was rather over friendly and ebullient.

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3 thoughts on “Spelling Test”

Wow! Really?!? He should be more careful what he says, he could get in to serious trouble. Cancer is bad enough, wherever it is in the body. No one should belittle what someone else has been through (no, he doesn’t know your story but that makes it worse in my opinion). It’s like the whole ‘my pain is worse than yours’, it should never be a competition.
I wonder if it is worth putting in a complaint about him. He should’ve been professional and he really wasn’t.

I did consider that he might have someone in his life that had ovarian cancer in the split seconds before I said what I did. Even so, not the right time or place or person. I do think he learned a lesson.